I Am Better Than You!
by Moony1972
Summary: James and Lily have a little bet in Charms class. Who's gonna win this one? And what could possibly be gained from a stupid bet in First Year?


**A/N: This little plot bunny has been jumping around in my head, and I decided to make it reality. I will be posting another one shot very shortly, if any of you care ;) Enjoy! I think you'll like it.**

I AM BETTER THAN YOU!

"Hurry up, Peter!" James called, looking down the hall as his chubby friend was seemingly hobbling as fast as he could. "We're not supposed to be attracting attention, we have to be good today!"

Remus nearly face palmed at James' bluntness. He knew, deep in his heart, that they were definitely going to be caught on their first prank ever since he was so bloody loud about their plans. He turned to Sirius, who seemed just as dumb as James, seeing as he made absolutely no comment on the stupidity of James yelling their plan out. This meant that Remus was going to be the one to have to point this out, and there was no way that was going to happen. He'd feel way too guilty about upsetting his only friends in the whole school. Peter definitely had the right idea about getting on the two's good side.

"I'm coming, James, I'm sorry! I'll behave extra good in class though, so the teachers won't suspect anything about our prank tonight."

"That's good, Peter! Love the attitude!" James said, shooting Peter a thumbs up.

Remus finally let out a groan. "You guys are so stupid! Now we're going to get caught!"

"Positive thinking, Remus, always remember that," Sirius said, thumping Remus on the back.

"Are you – Merlin…so Peter gets encouraged for announcing the world that we're having a prank tonight, while I get put down? How is this a fair friendship? This stupid prank –"

"Shh, Remus!" James exclaimed, covering Remus' mouth.

"Why are you boys not in class?" a very squeaky voice asked.

Sirius decided that it would be a good idea to play innocent.

"Did you hear anything? I don't see anyone," Sirius declared.

James thought that Sirius was going the right way about this situation.

"I don't know. No one's at my eye level."

It seemed that only Remus and Peter noticed that Flitwick was definitely getting more and more frustrated. But at least the responsibility to warn James and Sirius had not fallen on Remus' shoulders, since he would obviously fail at the job.

"Five points from Gryffindor! And don't make me make it more, otherwise you'll be in the negatives after to you complete tonight's prank!" Flitwick said in a louder version of his very squeaky voice.

That caught the boys' attention. Sirius glared at Remus, as if it were all his fault. Remus hated it when this happened. Why did he have to be the one who had to say the last line, when, in reality, Flitwick had probably listening the whole time? It was James' fault! Of course, now wasn't the time to argue that point.

The four boys sheepishly went to the Charms classroom and sat at their usual table – Jame and Sirius were quite a bit grumpy at the change of events. It wasn't fair that they didn't have the opportunity to play their prank because they were caught before they even started setting up!

James sat quietly at the table, not speaking to Sirius…or even writing a note to him. This didn't make Sirius very happy, but, nonetheless, it was what had happened, and there was no changing the past. Of course, to add to his grumpy mood, Lily Evans had to choose the seat right in front of him. She was the main reason that he just had to prank the Slytherins and show her that being friends with Slytherins was stupid since Gryffindors were so much better. But, at least this class wasn't with greasy snakes.

That was when James had a brilliant, beyond brilliant, idea. He tapped on Lily's shoulder – much to Sirius' dismay, but no one gave a hoot about what Sirius was feeling about James ignoring him and not Lily – and she turned around…more like nearly fell out of her chair in the act of turning around.

"What, Potter?" she snapped. "Can't you see I'm trying to focus? This is a very important spell."

"Actually, Evans, I was hoping you'd like to join me in a challenge," James said, trying to look as if he didn't really think Lily was much of a threat.

Lily raised her eyebrows. "A challenge?"

"To prove to you that Gryffindors are better than you think, so you can just hang out with the smart people," James took this moment to motion to himself and his three 'bumboys', as Lily had christened them. "as opposed to nasty Slytherins. Whaddya say?"

If James wasn't mistaken, he'd swear he saw a devilish glint flit across Lily's eyes, but it was gone as fast as he came, so he couldn't be sure. It was Lily Evans, though, so it's not like she could be planning anything sinister.

"I'll take you up on it, if you promise to leave me and my friends alone for a month," Lily said.

James shrugged. "If that's the best prize you could think of for the 0% possibility of you winning…"

"Shut up, Potter," Lily said. "This battle as soon as Professor Flitwick tells us we could start."

Twenty minutes later, James was getting very impatient. Sirius was giving him the cold shoulder and just talking to Remus, and Peter was busy masturbating or whatever it was that he did.

"And how are we to hold our wands for this spell?" Flitwick asked the class.

Lily was not answering any of the questions, and the rest of the class was having difficulty. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter couldn't answer the questions because that would mess up their reputation. So basically, the class felt like it was an infinite loop. James tapped Lily on the shoulder again.

"What, Potter?" she hissed, sounding very annoyed.

"Er, you want to answer some of these questions, speed on the damn process a little?"

Lily glared at James, but, nonetheless raised her hand.

"Not the way you'd hold a quill, obviously, you hold it very gently, and allow the wand to swish slightly when you're performing the flower charm. Can we start now, Professor? I'm really excited about it," Lily said, ignoring the snickers from the idiots (James and his bumboys) behind her.

"I appreciate your enthusiasm, Miss Evans!" Flitwick said, looking like Lily was some sort of saint. He then turned to the class. "If you have questions, I will help you over here. If you find this is too easy for you, then yes, as Miss Evans said, you may work on perfecting the flowering charm," Flitwick started to chuckle and winked at James. "And we all know that the ladies here would love to be on the receiving end of a flowering charm."

James' eyes filled with an even more increased determination. Remus muttered something that sounded along the lines of "whipped", while Sirius said, quite loudly and eloquently, "nerd". Peter, on the other hand, waddled over to the group where Flitwick was continuing to teach. Lily rolled her eyes at Flitwick's _subtle_ comment to James and held her wand.

One swish and one incantation of "Flores Patrone Fetidus" and out spurted little, white lilies from her own wand. She grinned and aimed the wand at the lanky guy behind her.

James was flicking his wand as hard as he could, "Flores Patrone! Damn it, Flores Patrone!" He did not seem to notice that Lily had _already_ completed the charm…until the flowers came by his nose.

"Sirius, did you fart? Again?" James asked, annoyed. "I'm trying to focus!"

"I didn't fart!" Sirius answered, looking flabbergasted. "Why would you even suggest that?" He added, trying to ignore the laughter from the rest of the class at James' outburst.

"I smell something _terrible_," James said.

Lily seemed to be finding this situation highly amusing and didn't hold her laughter.

James looked at Lily accusingly. "Something funny, Eva –" he paused, noticing the little white lilies floating innocently in front of his nose. "Did you make this?" Lily only laughed harder. "Are you serious? This is what the charm does? Makes smelly flowers? I thought they were _supposed_ to be realistic."

This caused Lily to glare at James. "It _is_ realistic. That's what flowers smell like when they've made contact with Potter."

Sirius seemed to find this very funny and did not bother to hide his amusement, while Remus was somewhat able to stop his lips from twitching upward.

"Shuddup Evans," James paused and looked at the flowers, swatting them away.

They started to drift towards other parts of the room.

Flitwick, in the meantime, was oblivious to the failed competition of James Potter, and was, instead, incessantly focused on showing the class the correct motion of moving the wand for the 69th time (but then again, whose counting?). That was when the flowers started to creep into his peripheral eye vision.

"Oh, look, what beautiful flowers have been produced!" Flitwick said, standing up, looking gleefully at the lilies. "You see, class, this is what we are trying to produce. Now who has done this magnificent piece of art?"

Quite proudly, Lily stood up from her seat. "Me, Professor."

"Well done, Miss Evans!" Flitwick said, looking overjoyed. "Ten points to Gryffindor!"

The Hufflepuffs in the class rolled their eyes at Gryffindor's victory over them, again. It was not their fault that Gryffindor had all the supergeniuses in their House. The Hufflepuffs believed that they too should receive ten points for being a good sport. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

Lily, on the other hand, looked smug at this honour.

"Thank you, Professor," she said, sitting back down.

Within three seconds, the class fell back into its previous roles.

James was glaring at Lily.

"I think I win this competition," Lily said, flipping her hair to one side for no reason at all.

"That doesn't count," James responded haughtily. "It shouldn't even be part of the ciriculum. When would you use that anyway?"

"It's called _magic_, Potter," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "Not that you'd understand it, but it's what we _do_ here at Hogwarts. You're just jealous that you're too stupid to perform a simple charm."

James glared. "When we're done, I'll be making better flowers than you."

"That wasn't the deal," Lily said. "You have to keep up your end, otherwise that just makes you a disloyal prat."

James groaned, "Fine."

Sirius and Remus were casually sitting, Remus more so than Sirius. Because Sirius was busy glaring at James.

"Are you _kidding_ me, James? We're not allowed to prank Snivelly for a _month_?!" Sirius looked shocked.

"And you failed at proving that Gryffindors are better than Slytherins?" Remus added, clapping sarcastically. "Congratulations."

James scowled, and continued to whip his wand, trying to produce the stupid flowers.

* * *

Lily was sleeping peacefully in her dormitory. And then she woke up equally as peacefully. For the first time in forever, she enjoyed the lack of presence of Potter and his bumboys hovering outside her window on broomsticks like the perverts they were. The only thing keeping her going was that there was only two more years of this nonsense she'd have to put up with, and then she would never have to see James again. If this peace was just a taste for graduation, she was definitely more than a little excited.

She opened her window and enjoyed the sight of the blue sky and the light pink daisies floating in front of her window, smelling like beautiful lilies. She paused…floating pink daisies smelling like lilies?! That could not be all right. She realized that these were the flowers produced from a simple "Flores Patrone" charm. Now who was so sweet to produce these flowers for her? They were better than the ones she could produce.

To her dismay, she looked down and saw Potter and his bumboys waving from the bottom of her window. Potter was grinning, twirling his wand in his right hand. He was looked _way_ to pleased with himself.

"Hey Evans!" he called. "I told you I was gonna get these to look better than yours!"

Lily growled. "POTTER! I'M GOING TO GET YOU!"

Potter gave Lily a very sly grin. "That's all what I've been asking for."

Lily let out a sound of frustration and slammed the window. So much for her beautiful and peaceful day she was about to have. Stupid Potter.

James, on the other hand, turned to his "bumboys" looking quite happy.

"Hey, that's more of a reaction than we got last time, that's something, right? Maybe tomorrow we should try the 'Auguamenti' charm. I bet I could make water better than her."

No one bothered to question this logic. Because this was James Potter, and if he truly believed he was better than Lily Evans, he probably wasn't. But nothing could stop him from trying.

THE END.

**A/N: Thoughts? Did you like it? I personally liked this one a lot. But if you have criticism, feel free to offer it. I want to improve as a writer. Seriously.**


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